Three Ws

Three Ws: The Where, Which, and When that are central to creating a layout's atmosphere.

Usage: Bob spent a lot of time attempting to understand the Three Ws of the backwoods switching yard layout he was planning.

Source: The Three Ws is a concept developed by David Jenkinson and laid out in his article, In Search of Atmosphere in Railway Modelling, that appeared in the October 1973 issue of Model Railways. He defines the Three Ws as follows:

It is possible to isolate three basic ingredients which are central to the theme [Ed, the layout's theme] and I have for some years referred to these as the 'Three Ws', standing for Where, Which and When. 'Where ?' concerns itself with the setting of the railway in geographical terms; 'Which ?' establishes the identity of the railway company being modelled and 'When ?' deals with the period in time which our model represents.

In the same article Mr. Jenkinson also discusses his belief that it's easier to capture atmosphere in the smaller scales than the larger ones:

... 4mm and smaller scales offer to the average modeller a better chance of capturing atmosphere than do the large scales. It follows that I believe smaller scales are much more for the artist than for the engineer....it is high time that modellers in the smaller scales ... accepted the limitations of their chosen scale and concentrated on the advantages that the miniature gauges possess over their larger equivalents, one of which is the capacity to create atmosphere.

See also, Full Observation.

from The Dictionary of Non-Existent Model Railroad Terms, 2nd ed., 1999.